Certainly, health professionals know about us, and many are members of a professional organisation of health professionals.

But this time, we want to tell you more about who we are and what we do, as well as give everyone who reads us some information about ourselves.

There are many of us, we are one of the largest trade unions, not only in the medical sector but also among other sectoral trade unions.

We are nurses, care workers, midwives, family nurses, radiology technicians, bio-analysts, operating theatre nurses and support staff. We work not only in hospitals but also in family centres, care homes, medical and dental centres. Speaking about our region, we are 800 members, in total there are about 3 200 members in Estonia.

Our main objective: protecting the rights and interests of our members at the national level.

For example, not many people know, and often do not even realise, the work behind these loud words: organising actions to raise awareness of our problems, numerous round tables on the subject of access to health care in Estonia and the salaries of health workers, meetings with employers, collective agreements.

In our region, the representatives of the region are the workers' representatives before the labour dispute commissions of the Labour Inspectorate.

People have got used to the idea that a trade union is about benefits and we have made many opportunities for our members to get benefits:

Vera Grigorieva, Health Workers' Union trustee at Narva hospitalIn Narva, the union started in 1993 with less than 30 members, but over the years we have grown, and in addition to the staff of the hospital, we have added doctors from all over the city, and now we have 323 members, and we are actively involved in many issues, not only at the local level, but also at the state level (increase in salaries of medical workers since 2010). We are building close links with Estonian hospitals and sharing our experience with colleagues from Russia and Belarus. We organise various courses and have partnerships with many organisations that offer various benefits to our members. Our union reimburses its members for sick leave, we have redundancy benefits and a strike fund. Our organisation is very strong and we are proud to be members.

Natalia Metelitsa, board member of the Estonian Health Workers' Union and coordinator in Ida-Viru County: On September 21, 2017, the CSPE (Estonian Central Trade Union Union) will launch a campaign to recruit new members to all Estonian trade unions, which we will also be sure to participate in. The campaign will start with a general conference of all trade union leaders on collective bargaining strategy. The aim of the campaign: To show ourselves, to inform people about the existence of trade unions and to attract new members. The campaign will run until 8 October.

Eveli Tamm, Chief Trustee of Ida-Viru County Central Hospital:

Ida Viru Central Hospital has more than 250 members of the Estonian Union of Health Professionals. The majority are nurses, but we also have physiotherapists and doctors.

Thanks to the trade union movement, we have achieved a lot to improve the working environment and the skills of our medical staff.

The benefits of membership of a trade union:

Although a collective agreement has been concluded this year, the work of the trade union is still ongoing, with each organisation still having a separate collective agreement between employer and employees. This year, the IWCB will review and update its collective agreement - giving union members more confidence for the years ahead.